The cold emanating from Seol Ri-hyang cooled the blazing air.
Naturally, the Blood Flame Fist Demon's head disciple noticed the anomaly and charged at Seol Ri-hyang.
"Where do you think you're going!"
I threw myself between them as if to block the path, swinging my sword.
KWAANG!
The unstable internal energy of the bastard exploded, and his body staggered along with the arm I had struck away.
So he couldn't even control himself anymore. What good was such power if it was only a half-baked Harmony Realm achieved through a whip technique?
He could not even hold his own body steady against the recoil of his own attack.
Of course, because of that instability, I couldn't recklessly go for his neck either… but at the very least, it wouldn't be too difficult to grab hold of him and keep him pinned down.
"So this is it…! This is why my master fell to your sword, which was still unripe!"
"No. The Blood Flame Fist Demon simply couldn't withstand my blade."
This was the truth. Even if Seol Ri-hyang hadn't been there, I probably could have brought down the Blood Flame Fist Demon. …But then again, I would have died too. Somehow, I'd ended up in a similar situation this time as well.
The brief moment I had bought. Had Seol Ri-hyang finished her preparations in that time? The cold air flowing from behind me grew even more intense. And then, a clear voice rang out.
"—————!"
As her mastery of the Yin Art deepened, Seol Ri-hyang's song wrapped around the surroundings far more broadly and densely than before.
And Seol Ri-hyang's voice carried internal energy… a chill.
The already noticeably lower temperature dropped even further, turning colder still.
The flames raised by the other disciples of the Blood Flame Fist Demon as they unleashed their martial arts began to die down, and the puddles of water someone had splashed to extinguish them started to freeze over.
Only the Grand Disciple, burning on his own, and the space around him remained unfrozen—Seol Ri-hyang had brought winter here… a piece of the North Sea.
Even Bing Yerin was taken aback, which said everything.
Thanks to that, the Aura had clearly weakened. I gripped my sword once more, focusing on the Heavenly Eye.
The energy that had been churning chaotically now moved with noticeably dulled speed. It was still irregular, still moving as if it might explode at any moment, still impossible to discern any pattern… but.
The speed at which the energy moved had slowed. I could see it clearly with my own eyes. And if I could see it, that meant I could cut it.
The moment I gained certainty, I deliberately held back my Intent and internal energy, then drew them up to full power.
My mind settled into a cold calm. To cut what could not normally be cut, all the enlightenment I had gained so far condensed into my sword.
The formless blade rippling above the white-hot sword body melted fully into it. All that remained was to see clearly what needed to be cut, and to swing.
The moment my mind moved, my shoulder moved. …But perhaps because it took a moment to unleash the power I had been suppressing.
Suddenly, the Great Disciple's energy faltered, and the flow that should have slowed began to accelerate.
"Huh?"
Instead of looking into the energy with the Heavenly Eye to see what trick this was, I looked at the Great Disciple's face.
A line of blood was trickling from the corner of his mouth, and the veins on his skin stood out prominently.
A typical side effect of the Mapokdan. Judging by his clenched jaw, he must have bitten down on a pill hidden between his teeth. …But how?
"You should have already been in a state of rampaging and repelling energy. What more could you possibly have done here?"
"Heh… White Moon Sword Lord. The fact that your martial arts rival the Supreme One in their excellence is well known even in the Demonic Cult. They say you can cut down several absolute masters with a single slash, and that you can even cut what cannot be cut, from a distance where cutting should be impossible."
"It's true that I've become famous enough that it's hard to hide, but I doubt knowing that will change anything."
"You're right. At the very least, we couldn't figure it out. Not until the Supreme One told us."
"The Heavenly Demon again… I'm getting rather tired of this."
Having seen the Heavenly Demon's memories, I could now say this with certainty. His true weapon was not the overwhelming Aura that could cover the sky.
What truly made the Heavenly Demon fearsome was not his martial arts, but the knowledge he had accumulated over the years. He must have sensed what kind of Enlightenment I had achieved.
I should have cut him down with a single slash a moment ago.
As I clicked my tongue inwardly, the skin on his body bulged and receded in waves—as if even holding back his rampaging internal energy was becoming too much.
The heat that Seol Ri-hyang had worked so hard to cool down had surged back even more violently than before, which was just the cherry on top.
With a face grotesquely melting away, the Grand Disciple opened his mouth.
"Of course, even like this, it's impossible to reach you, White Moon Sword Lord. And the one you protect is no exception either. …In that case."
Red flames mixed into the blue blaze. His body served as the same kindling, yet the two fires clashed against each other as if they were different flames altogether, burning ever higher.
And the flow of internal energy grew as fierce as the rising flames. As if to prove it, his movements were far faster and stronger than before.
KWANG!
He had only stomped the ground with his foot, yet the earth burst apart. The problem was that his own leg had also sprayed blood from the recoil…
But no one would care about such things now. Not me, and not the Grand Disciple either.
"Tch."
The brat turned his back on Seol Ri-hyang and ran toward the Haomun Leader without hesitation.
I swung my sword and barely managed to knock the brat's shoulder aside.
Had his pure speed risen to a level comparable to mine? He couldn't control it, but if there was no need to control it, then that was a different story.
The Grand Disciple, knocked sideways, shouted in a voice that was beginning to crack.
"Why are you blocking me! With this time, you could have escaped easily!"
"Even if you let your internal energy run rampant once more, what did you think would change? It was the same before."
Even so, the reason I insisted on taking him down was that losing Haomun before dealing with the Demonic Cult would be too great a loss.
The empire's branch was already crippled since its very leader was a spy for the Demonic Cult, and it was too much for the Beggars' Sect alone to keep track of information on both the Central Plains and the Demonic Cult.
Rather than fighting with one eye closed, it was better to push myself a little now.
The Grand Disciple, finally realizing the meaning of my words, glared at me once more.
I confirmed that the Haomun Leader, having realized he had nearly died in the blink of an eye, hurriedly hid behind Seol Ri-hyang, and let out a small sigh.
I said what I said, but if even Seol Ri-hyang's cold air couldn't cool it down, there was no proper solution.
Since things had come to this, I would do what I could, but I had no choice but to prepare for the worst…
Just as I finished organizing my thoughts and adjusted my grip on the sword.
"Cheon Hwi! One more time… I'll give it one more try, so can you buy me that much time?!"
"Hm? That much is certainly possible, but will you be alright?"
The burden placed on the Grand Disciple's body was enough to destroy himself, yet all it had accomplished was allowing him to match my speed.
Catching an opponent who couldn't even properly execute their martial arts because they couldn't control their overflowing power was still not difficult.
The problem was Seol Ri-hyang's side.
I knew she was giving her all. No—this was the most powerful cold air she had shown so far.
It seemed that seeing the Heavenly Demon's memories and referencing the Heavenly Demon Divine Art had definitely helped.
Even so, she couldn't completely block the Grand Disciple.
This wasn't a matter of technique or enlightenment. It was pure physical capability. A question of how much internal energy she could move.
No matter how much Seol Ri-hyang was a martial artist at the peak of Transcendent Peak, she wasn't at a level where she could compete in internal energy against an opponent who had ascended to Harmony Realm and stacked rampage upon rampage.
Seol Ri-hyang, who had clashed with her directly, would know this better than anyone.
Wondering if she had some kind of plan, I deflected the Grand Disciple's attacks from a distance and asked.
"This time I can definitely do it! If something's lacking, I'll just make up for it!"
Saying that, she grabbed the hand of Bing Yerin, who had been adding what little strength she could from Seol Ri-hyang's side.
"Huh?"
Bing Yerin froze for a moment in surprise. Seol Ri-hyang, on the other hand, pulled her toward herself without the slightest hesitation.
"Come here!"
Seol Ri-hyang's eyes flew wide open.
***
Seol Ri-hyang thought. The only thing lacking was internal energy.
Even just the barest fragment of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art—the basic mysteries she had managed to grasp—had already transformed the efficiency of her Yin Art.
Even if she was only unleashing Harmony Realm-level internal energy, the fact that she had reached a point where she could scrape by was surely thanks to the memories she had been poring over just moments ago.
But that alone wasn't enough. If even her Pure Yin Constitution and the Spiritual Medicines she had devoured at the North Sea Ice Palace weren't enough… then she had no choice but to bring something in from outside.
"Come here!"
"Hic!"
Bing Yerin flinched as her arm was suddenly yanked, but that wasn't simply because of Seol Ri-hyang's abrupt action.
The North Sea Ice Palace was overflowing with Spiritual Medicines. And Bing Yerin was the one who would have to take responsibility for the next generation if Seol Ri-hyang ultimately refused to become the Young Palace Mistress.
Naturally, her internal energy reserves were considerable compared to her martial level, and that remained true even now.
Seol Ri-hyang had decided to make use of Bing Yerin's internal energy.
Just as she had once done when facing the Azure-White Flood Dragon in the North Sea.
Woong-
The Glacier True Energy, created to carry all the cold of the North Sea, reacted to the energy of the North Sea Ice Palace flowing through Bing Yerin's meridians.
After all, wasn't the martial art of the North Sea Ice Palace simply internal energy refined by absorbing the cold of the North Sea?
If so, it should rightfully be able to move with Glacier True Energy.
It was a truly crude leap of logic, but Seol Ri-hyang believed without a doubt that it had to be so.
"W-wait, this is…!"
Rather, it was Bing Yerin who flinched in fright and tried to pull away. She failed, because Seol Ri-hyang held her firmly.
That was a natural reaction. Drawing on another's internal energy was not as easy as it sounded.
There could be all sorts of serious side effects like the Grand Ritual of Absorption, or Seol Ri-hyang and Bing Yerin's energies—belonging to different people—could clash and trigger a Qi Deviation, or if luck was against them, they might explode one step faster than the Blood Flame Fist Demon's senior disciple.
Without the Ice Crystal as a powerful medium like before, this was practically madness.
…And yet, Seol Ri-hyang was pulling it off rather well.
'I can do this.'
She had done it once before, and wasn't she handling an even smaller amount of energy this time? And besides.
'The Heavenly Demon would have done it with ease.'
It wasn't just about moving energy at will. She had dominated it. Simply by commanding, the Demonic Qi watched the Heavenly Demon's mood and moved to accomplish what he desired.
Of course, she couldn't match the Heavenly Demon, but if it was just a little, she could imitate it…
'No. This isn't it either.'
The image of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art that she had conjured in her mind. It had been that impressive, and it had genuinely helped Seol Ri-hyang's martial art.
But the moment she tried to surpass her own limits, Seol Ri-hyang knew it instinctively.
This method was not her path.
She could not dominate the cold energy, and it was impossible to crush it down with sheer force of will.
So what was she to do?
She already knew the answer. It hadn't been so long that she could forget what she had learned martial arts for, and with what mindset.
'I wanted to be of help.'
At first, it had been that simple. The moment Cheon Hwi, who had suddenly dropped out of nowhere one day, carried her on his back and leaped over the rooftops of the pleasure house.
Seol Ri-hyang wanted to repay Cheon Hwi for as much as he had helped her.
So she pushed herself too hard at times, was a little stubborn at others, and sometimes yielded readily, admitting her own shortcomings.
But the foundation of all these actions had never changed, not even for a single moment.
Now she knew the reason Cheon Hwi had helped her, but the first resolve that Seol Ri-hyang, who had known nothing back then, had made was an exceedingly simple one.
She wanted to become someone who could help others, too.
Before she met Cheon Hwi, Seol Ri-hyang's life had been a path leading to a worst-case scenario that seemed drawn in a picture.
This was surely a hell created by human greed.
…But, if it is people who push others into hell, then it is also people who lift them back up again.
Just as Cheon Hwi had once been, I too want to become someone's miracle.
I want to be the one who reaches out a hand first, the one who takes another's hand, and the one who, together with them, climbs to a higher place.
Just as I grew by meeting Cheon Hwi, meeting Tang So-wol and Seomun Hwa-rin, meeting the people of the Tang Clan and the martial artists of the North Sea Ice Palace.
Now it is Seol Ri-hyang herself who wants to be the first to approach someone.
Before the regression, when she was called the Ghost Sound Witch, Seol Ri-hyang sang only laments.
Even if there were constraints she couldn't fully perceive, she could at least tell what thoughts she had poured into her martial art.
'But now, it's different.'
What she needed to pour into her martial art—into her song—was not gwigi, and certainly not a sigh of self-pity.
Seol Ri-hyang wanted to sing of tomorrow.
Even if it was a somewhat childish, and in some ways immature, wish, it was Seol Ri-hyang's true heart.
Having sorted out her thoughts, Seol Ri-hyang looked at Bing Yerin and spoke.
"Help me."
"I'd like to, but how?! My internal energy won't listen to a word I say, and it won't listen to you either…!"
"That's enough. Those words are enough."
Seol Ri-hyang nodded with a faint smile. At the same time, her internal energy, which had been forcibly forcing its way in, began to change.
An energy that offered its hand more naturally, more politely. Its tip touched Bing Yerin's energy.
Whoosh!
The cold energy swelled with a violent resonance, as if it had been one from the very beginning.
Though they had both trained in the martial arts of the North Sea Ice Palace, the energies belonged to different people, so they could not fully merge into one.
Yet, even while remaining distinct, they found their own harmony.
A cold energy far more intense than before resonated through Seol Ri-hyang's voice.
No, that wasn't all.
The Natural Qi that had been beyond her reach began to be influenced by the cold energy, as if bewitched by her song, or as if willingly offering its aid to Seol Ri-hyang.
The Natural Qi, which should have been the most stable of all, began to lean toward the same cold energy as Seol Ri-hyang's.
In late summer, a white world of snow settles over the land.
The aura of the Grand Disciple, which had been rampaging without direction, the flame that had been consuming itself, weakened.
Beyond the wavering flames, Cheon Hwi could be seen swinging his sword…
The neck of a single half-burned log fell. A flame that burns alone without burning together is bound to go out soon.
Silence soon followed, and the world was painted white. But Seol Ri-hyang did not find it cold.
That was surely because there was one person looking back at her with startled eyes.